ShipStation should use the actual ship date entered in the order’s shipping details when generating customer communications and transmitting shipping information to other applications.
Currently, ShipStation may display the date that shipping or tracking information was entered or updated rather than the date the order actually shipped. These dates are not necessarily the same.
This is particularly problematic with drop-shipped orders. A supplier may ship an order on one date but not provide the tracking information to the merchant until several days later. When the merchant receives the tracking information, the correct ship date can be entered in the order’s shipping details. However, ShipStation correspondence may still report the later date on which the shipping information was entered or updated as the ship date.
For example, an order may actually ship on August 10, with the drop shipper providing tracking information on August 13. If the order is updated on August 13 and ShipStation reports August 13 as the shipping date, the customer is being given inaccurate information even though the correct August 10 ship date has been entered in the order.
This creates several problems:
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Customers receive inaccurate shipping information. The communication states that an order shipped on a date when it did not.
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Delivery expectations become misleading. A customer may believe a package has only been in transit for one day when it has actually been in transit for several days.
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Incorrect information is passed to integrated applications. Other systems that rely on ShipStation data may then store, display, or communicate the inaccurate shipping date. This includes data passed back to the ecommerce platform, where the incorrect ship date can affect downstream order logic.
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It undermines the purpose of having a ship-date field. If the merchant has entered the actual ship date in the order's shipping details, that date should be treated as the authoritative shipping date rather than the date on which the information happened to be entered into ShipStation.
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It can cause return windows to be calculated incorrectly. Many ecommerce platforms calculate return eligibility based on the shipment date. If ShipStation sends the date the tracking information was entered rather than the actual ship date, the ecommerce platform may begin the return window from the wrong date, resulting in an inaccurate return deadline.
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It creates unnecessary customer-service issues. Customers may question tracking activity, expected delivery dates, return eligibility, or apparent discrepancies between carrier tracking and the information provided by the merchant.
The date that shipping information is entered or updated is an administrative timestamp, not necessarily a shipping event. These are two different pieces of information and should not be treated interchangeably.
For data accuracy, ShipStation should consistently use the ship date recorded in the order’s shipping details in customer correspondence, API/integration data, data returned to the ecommerce platform, and other downstream communications whenever that date has been provided. The date the shipping information was entered or updated can certainly be retained internally for auditing purposes, but it should not replace the actual ship date communicated to customers or connected systems, particularly when that date is used to calculate time-sensitive policies such as return windows.